Turntable Mat question

I had a Kenwood KD-500 for about 18 years with a Grace G-707 arm.  I used the Platter Pad on it and it was a very good sound.  Only traded it in at the end as the speed started having problems staying true.  Bought a Maplenoll Ariadne air bearing TT/ arm that after about 9 months, I got working perfectly finally.  The Kenwood with Grace combo was highly reviewed by at least 2 rags at the time.  It was a very good sounding combo.  The 'Noll was much better sounding, but the PITA factor of all the possible ways the air delivery from the pump could go wrong wore me out.  Twice it caused the cantilever to snap close to a 90 degree angle.  I bought the Kenwood for $160 new and the Grace for $97 new from mail order places in California in the late 70's.  Tough to beat combo for that money.

Bob

rocky1313,

In my post, the Platter Pad is the name of an actual mat that is almost 1/4" thick. It was a somewhat flexible, but firm mat. This was sold back in about 1980 and is probably not being made anymore. Someone might still have one if you put in a wanted ad.  The combo with the KD-500 and Grace 707 was very highly reviewed back in the late 1970's to early 1980's.

Bob

Hey Uber,

I had the Mitchell clamp with the Kenwood KD-500 and the Platter Pad. I put a thin quarter sized washer under the record and cut out a Mitchell clamp sized in diameter piece of 2 mm thick plastic from a larger piece of Tupperware bottom that was flat, so the plastic was a little thicker. I traced the Mitchell clamp onto the Tupperware. I then found a smaller round object that was about I" less in diameter than the clamp and traced the outside of it so it fit perfectly inside the other circle. Both of these circles were then cut out carefully. I then glued the piece of round plastic to the Mitchell clamp and now had a very respectable version of the Sota clamp on the cheap. It clamped every record in my collection. You had to push the clamp down with one hand pretty securely while tightening the knob with the other hand.

It even looked fine, too. Never had the plastic fall off in over 15 years of ownership. It was not a PITA to do on each record and worked great.

Bob